#wild concept but its so possible & so easy

[verysium]

『01』 呪術廻戦: jujutsu kaisen recs

五条悟: gojo satoru

i know you still think about the times we had by @saetoru

satoru will always comes when you call him, he just never thought you’d stop calling. notes: satoru is so desperate and pathetic here it is just delicious; has the right amount of angst to cause tension but a good ending to soothe my poor heart; traditional rich boy and disapproving mother/father scenario but implemented relatively well; miscommunication and feelings of inadequacy; reader realizing the extent to which satoru loves them

pretty eyes by @quirklessidiot

in which the right eye is mine and the left eye is yours and when we meet for the first time, you see your own eyes staring back at you. notes: takes tragic star-crossed lovers to a whole new level; riddled with parallels and symbolism; idea of illness and loving someone at their worst; right person, wrong time at its finest; fate being unnecessarily cruel; surprising moments of humor

minazuki by @quirklessidiot

In which Y/N L/N is placed under a union she has no choice but to partake for the sake of her survival. notes: this series needs to be scientifically studied; it is just that good; halfway in and i fell in love with the reader instead of gojo; strong and somewhat morally grey characters; dark themes around femininity in a patriarchal society but concept was executed flawlessly

21: only by @tenjiiku

“What do you want, Satoru?” You do not use his last name or any honorific to address him despite his age. He was older than you by a few years — but certainly did not act the part — so you do not think he deserves your respect. Your host father told you he does — something about his being from a prominent private school as an educator, which you cannot possibly fathom being the truth — but only in front of you is Satoru Gojo an inane, odd man with a need for clean, dry-cleaned clothes that, for some strange reason he has conjectured in his equally baffling mind, that only you can provide. He smiles at you, placing his cheek in his hand. “You.” notes: this fic embodies the duality between gojo and satoru; he is easy-going until he isn’t and you realize he actually has a considerable amount of depth; the plot twist did it for me; satoru being a loud-mouthed tease but secretly harboring feelings

soulswap by @orphxus (impxria)

this is where the evening splits in half, love or death. grab an end, pull hard, & make a wish. notes: short but realistically describes everything wrong with jujutsu society; poetic voice; gojo being serious for once; disillusionment and tragic hero archetype; being the strongest yet being unable to save anybody; geto would read this fic and feel seen

両面宿儺: ryomen sukuna

nocuous by @quirklessidiot

“It’s ironic, isn’t it? I knew how this was going to end but I’m still terribly hurt by it.” notes: the heian era setting is so complex and established even through dialogue and subtle description; reader strikes me as older and able to deal with sukuna’s chaotic nature; sukuna being an absolute menace is sending me; tragic angst but almost didn’t notice it due to how beautifully the images are presented

avīci by @rotpeach

Several years ago, Satoru Gojo was involved in the exorcism of a uniquely stubborn curse. The official report states that one of Ryomen Sukuna's fingers was recovered from the scene, and nothing else. Only the two of you know the truth. notes: gore, gore, and even more gore; boy was this fic a wild ride; imagine a work that condenses the ugliest and most revolting parts of human nature yet presents them so elegantly you start questioning the blurred lines of morality; cannibalism, violence, and love triangles; japanese mythology & folklore; heian period references; cursed spirit reader tries to grapple with the idea of self after being created for the sole purpose of serving others; themes of existentialism, identity crisis, obsession

[k20spock]

Birds and Trees in Slay the Princess

I saw a few people talking about this, and I’m having thoughts.

So in Slay the Princess, birds and trees are used as symbols of the outside world. Asking the narrator what the end of the world really means has him telling you that there will be no more birds and no more trees. The Razor, when speaking of what she’d like to do in the outside world, says she wants to look at a bird or touch a tree, a desire the Voice of the Hero empathizes with.

These two things, the bird and the tree, symbolize the player and the princess respectively.

The bird is easy. The protagonist is literally a bird creature, and various forms of the princess refers to you as a bird throughout the course of the game. The narrator tells you you’ll be able to look at a bird later, and he’s right: you later get to look at yourself in the mirror.

The princess is the tree. Tree-related imagery is used in several routes. The Witch’s control over the roots of the cabin, The Wild being represented as a network of roots, The Wounded Wild being an open ribcage fused to the trunk of a tree, uprooted trees swirling around The Apotheosis as she ascends, The Thorn trapped in root-like vines, The Beast hiding amongst the trees of the jungle.

The Shifting Mound’s final form resembles a tree visually. The central body as the trunk, the writhing bodies beneath her as the roots, the outstretched arms as the branches.

More than visually, the player and the princess embody the concept of the bird and the tree. In the construct, the narrator gives you a choice and the princess a role to play. The princess is static, something to be acted upon. She has a role in the story, and she has little choice in fulfilling it. You, however, are a creature with free will, the ability to make the decisions. Any change on the princess’s part is a reaction to your actions.

The relationship between different living organisms existing together long-term and the effect they have on each other is called symbiosis. Symbiosis is often incorrectly described as being a relationship between organisms where both benefit. The actual word for that is a specific kind of symbiosis called mutualism. Symbiosis doesn’t haven’t told benefit both parties and indeed, it often doesn’t.

The bird feeds on what the tree provides. The bird spreads the seeds of the tree, allowing it to reproduce and continue its existence. The bird finds shelter in the tree’s branches, and the tree could care less. The bird bores holes into the tree, leaving it vulnerable to disease. The bird consumes and knocks down fruit before it has a chance to ripen, destroying the possibility for new life. The bird keeps the tree free of insects, keeping it safe. The bird perches on new branches not yet strong enough to support them, stunting growth. The bird nests in the corpse of what was once a tree.

Yet no matter what, it is all natural, and all leads to something new eventually. There are no wrong answers.

No matter what, she asks that I tell you to remember her. 

[mdhwrites]

Belos' Empire Was Perfect

In theory. For a kid's show dictatorship, I don't know how much better you could do with your concept, especially with the themes that TOH was going for.

I want to emphasize this because it's going to sound like this is praise for a bit: IN. CONCEPT.

Belos' dictatorship has a very easy methodology to it as presented by literally the only three elements of oppression we ever see. The Conformatorium in episode one and the prejudice of wild witches which... Wait on that one. And finally the last one is of course the coven system. This forms the backbone what is frankly one of the most basic elements of any dictatorship: The loss of self. Without individuality, you do not have self worth and thus do not consider whether the treatment you are being given is what you should be getting.

This is coupled by the Wild Witches being the enemy of all. You do not question the state because they are the only thing protecting you from that boogeyman under your bed that will destroy all that you know if not for them. Adding theology to that is honestly barely a change. It just means you worship the government approved god rather than the government itself. It really cannot be understated how that BARELY changes the actual mechanics of a dictatorship besides them likely implementing prayer more.

But none of this is violent besides the wild witch stuff and even TOH tried to be clever in showing that the enemy never existed (in the dumbest possible ways that I have discussed before but I couldn't find my blog about it). So... No violence but all the oppression of a dictatorship! That's literally perfect for a kid's show about rebelling against a system that wants to push you down and put you in a box.

Partially because it allows for some of the best parts of being a kid to be the driving method for success: Friendship and Creativity. Your open heart and open mind. In a world that is stagnant, you will bust it open with your ideas and your unique personality, especially while mixing with others and giving them back their own individuality. This isn't complicated but it works EXTREMELY well.

And TOH executed on none of this concept.

That isn't even an understatement. Wild Witches DO exist, we see them being round up in Eda's Requiem, but that's also the ONLY time we see them. So the main enemy is only humanized through Eda who is a genuine piece of shit before Luz so Belos is kind of right about her unfortunately. So the boogeyman is real and indeed the only people who give a shit about them is the EC so yeah, the populace is just correct to fear them.

And why wouldn't they when they have complete freedom under the government? We see PLENTY of weird people during the time of TOH and none of them go to the Conformatorium. The prison may as well exist just for the pilot for how much it actually matters or does its job. The idea that being different and unique will get you jailed just straight up does not exist after the first episode except for a VERY discordant moment of Luz and King being jailed for walking on grass. Otherwise, NOTHING.

(To drive this home briefly: Someone in my Discord pointed out while I wrote this that Gus' interest in humans is seen as weird and discordant from the rest of the populace. It is why he isn't more popular despite his skills. So... Why is he able to be loud and proud about that interest if your unique interests get you jailed?)

And in return for submitting to the coven system, the citizens of the Isles enjoy protections they don't appear to have had before, have a level of technology that COULD NOT have been a thing during Belos' rise or else he literally couldn't have done it because his rise to power is genuinely terrible, and they have freedoms that anyone in America shares. As far as we know they don't even censor which is dictatorship 101. They don't even enforce their own rules because so long as Eda, the most wanted criminal on the Isles, doesn't literally point herself out and scream at the top of her lungs who she is, no one, not even the guards, will bother coming for her. The Isles is genuinely idealic in this way.

And it comes back to a problem that TOH has of well... Yeah. It had to be appealing and easy because Luz is a genuinely terrible person. If the Isles had been awful, a place truly hostile to her like Amphibia was to Anne, then she would have just gone home. The only way she decides to stay in the Isles is because she's cosplaying. Not because she actually has a sense of justice or duty against corruption, otherwise Luz might not have taken until HOLLOW MIND to actually for once speak against Belos or do literally anything against the EC (and only once she doesn't get to have her witch cloak because of it because these writers have no idea how to write a genuine hero or honestly a properly good person. Just nice ones.) but because she can pretend to be Azura. We even somewhat got confirmation because she literally ends the series just admitting she sees Azura as her. She quotes the god damn book and what is supposed to be cyclical is actually INCREDIBLY toxic because it's just a fulfillment of her fantasies rather than any acknowledgement of reality or growth besides "I only can exist in a fantasy world," which is GREAT messaging to your LGBTQIA+ and Nuerodivergent fans. Thanks show.

So this concept they have for their themes essentially REQUIRES that there be a dictatorship, and allows for one you can do in kid's shows (reminder: there is somehow a stock trope of a villain getting ultimate power and immediately going Nazi with it in kids' shows. They ABSOLUTELY could have shown more than what TOH did.). They just also couldn't because the protagonist they wrote and the wish fulfillment they wanted to play into, as well its 'subversive' elements, literally couldn't function with it actually existing. With the show actually being about taking down that hates you just for being you.

And I REALLY want to emphasize that that's not new. POKEMON has their main villains, including Team Rocket, not care about the individuality of their Pokemon, and thus be willing to brutalize them, because all they care about are results. The main villain for Slugterra's whole thing is robbing slugs of who they are, turning them nasty and violent, just to make them 'more powerful' and that WAS a Disney show. TOH could have done this...

They just didn't and I cannot tell you why besides them not actually being interested in telling their own story or themes because otherwise, why did you include this?

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[christiansorrell]

TTRPG Read-Through: Patchwork World

Here is a read-through I did last year (originally posted on Twitter) of one of the most unique PbtA games I've ever read: Patchwork World by Aaron King! - Christian

Credits up first. I know a lot of these folks and they are really cool! Excited to dig into this. I've heard good things, and it's been a while since I've read or played any Powered by the Apocalypse.

This is a cool, strong set up for me. I really like settings that ask characters to face a changing world and either take up change themselves or work to restore the old way of things. It's a headspace I find myself in a lot IRL these days so it's fun to explore.

I'm interested to see how the no stats, no playbooks angle of this game works, considering playbooks are typically such a staple of PbtA games.

Standard three-tired success, mixed success, fail forward resolution for rolls here and questions on the moves determine your bonus to the roll. Easy peasy. +2 is the max bonus.

Other types of rolls are described here. Interested to see how they come into play. I also love clocks and use them in pretty much every game I run so it's nice to see those laid out here too.

We just love a lil guy, don't we folks?

A good chunk of the opening here is spent on laying out a lot of solid foundations of roleplaying generally. It feels like a book (so far) that would work for entirely new players. It doesn't feel essential for me, but I never mind a game that supports varied experience levels.

Character creation is wide open, especially since there aren't playbooks and the text stresses that character creation is very much worldbuilding because of this. Fate-like concepts and tags are in here too which are things I generally enjoy. I like the Drawback mechanic.

Moves are in the playback I set in the other room so I'm gonna go grab those. You get two chosen moves and everyone has access to a number of default moves. You've got three other life/XP things to keep track of too. I'm especially interested in Hex.

There are a lot of moves! They seem quite varied and often very weird, fitting well with the titular patchwork world. You can have a duck's slick soul to dodge more easily or a magical space suit or speak to birds or be good at cartography. Overwhelming, but in an exciting way.

You also choose a community as a party. While PCs all have their original homelands (before the end of the old worlds), you know have a community that gets its own little sheet. This is a cool reshaping of the Gangs from Blades. I also like how the community can change over time.

Coming back to a PbtA game after months of more OSR-minded stuff, I think a lot of what these games contain are things that experienced players would say you could just do in any game at any time that it makes sense in the story, but I do find value in stating what's possible.

Esp since many players come to games with artificial limits on their options (whether that's from video games, more traditional RPGs, etc.). I just think good GMing here requires making sure that the players don't limit themselves just to the bevy of explicit options either.

GM moves (mostly to guide the response to failed rolls). I really think the community aspect of this set up is one of the biggest appeals to me so far. That and the wild list of moves, which I'm sure makes for amazing parties of characters.

I always feel like it's never something I should be in my own writing (for some probably unnecessary reason), but I enjoy the first-person, casual writing style throughout the book. Makes for a very chill read.

Good to see this game employs the Branson Reese style of NPC naming.

Stress acts as a single catch-all health and challenge rating for NPCs. Ideally, I'd hope this would help lead to the PCs approaching encounters with more than just violence.

Sections like this are what I'm referring to when I say this book feels very friendly to new players. It's got little anecdotes and thoughts like this throughout.

Look, it's been a while since I've seen A Christmas Story but... it didn't have ghosts in it right?

There's a sample adventure in the back (which I'll skip for this read-through) plus loads of random tables. Some wonderfully bizarre stuff in the characters and faction tables. Really gives you a good idea for how gonzo you can go with the setting.

Love these two in particular

Optional rules include hard mode (which I just think is kind of funny to see in PbtA, but could be cool if you lean heavy into the post-apoc setting) and some optional moves. I like that some moves focus on romance, something I enjoy IRL but never think to focus on in games.

I was wondering why this was the sixth edition!

That's all for the book itself. Going back to the packet to dig into the things I missed. Some expected bits in here but always one or two unique options I really enjoy. Leaking hex is cool (and could have some troubling cascade effects in certain situations).

I definitely wish, at least in sitting down to read like this, that the contents of the player packet was also in the book itself. I think PbtA has this tendency of leading to loads of pages on the table, but it can make them very easy to pick up and play or to learn as you play.

That element is definitely here, but I think the vast number of wide-ranging moves and the excitement that would drum up in my player group would more than makeup for that initial overwhelming feel of "whoa, that's a lot of papers out on the table".

Overall, it's the most I've wanted to play a game in this style in a while. I like that the base setup for the world is very much up to the players to determine via the characters they make. I like that PCs here will probably feel unlike any other folks have played before.

The community aspect feels like where I'd want to center my story around, as a player. Seeing that shift and change over time feels like it would be very rewarding and would help lean into the "the old world is dead, what do we want the new world to look like?" theme I enjoy.

Because Aaron King is cool and recently hit a lot of Twitter followers, Patchwork Worlds is now Pay-what-you-want over on Itch.

I'm not sure if physical copies are readily available. For full disclosure (guess I should have said this up front), I got this copy for free from Aaron! Not for the purposes of this thread or anything, just for fun a while back.

Thanks for reading more ramblings from me! If you like to do that sort of thing, check out my newsletter - Missives from the MeatCastle. It's got writings on my work, cool stuff I've run across the web in the last month, and exclusive rpg stuff! https://meatcastle.substack.com

[yanderes-galore]

Yandere Woolly Howl(Pet-like)

Sure! I'd love fo write for the neat looking ice dragon :) I researched what I could for this as it is a game only dragon.

Yandere! Woolly Howl Concept

Pairing: Animal/Pet-Like

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Overprotective dragon, Stalking, Violence, Possessive behavior, Jealousy, Territorial dragon, Kidnapping, Clingy behavior.

Woolly Howls are dragons that are built to survive blizzards.

This gives them an advantage as they can now use their speed and the camouflage from the storm to ambush prey.

These dragons are stealthy and can be dangerous like most Strike Class dragons.

Instead of using plasma or lightning of some kind for a breath weapon, these dragons use a breath that resembles hail.

Similar to other dragons in its class, the Woolly Howl is intelligent and learns quickly.

I can think of a few scenarios where you meet this dragon.

Maybe you're given an egg to take care of? That's the easy way to get this dragon to trust you.

Then there's the possibility of one saving a lone viking from a snowstorm.

These dragons share a similar structure to the Night Fury and Skrill, two other Strike Class dragons.

Yet these dragons are better fit in snow rather than lightning storms.

These dragons appear to have fur, giving them their name.

Although these are mostly comprised of small scales.

Not much is known about these dragons but we can assume they act like Night Furies in nature.

Although they appears to be larger than a Night Fury despite their similarities.

To a rider a Woolly Howl would be a fast and agile dragon and a good dragon to train.

A Woolly Howl may not listen to their rider at first but will warm up to them with training.

Since not much is known about their personality I can only imagine they are a seemingly "furred" counterpart to the Night Fury in terms of behavior.

Except for the bat-like characteristics.

No matter how you meet the Woolly Howl I don't doubt they'd be loyal and protective towards their rider.

If you live somewhere cold your Woolly Howl would thrive.

I'd imagine they have a way to keep warm despite being based on ice.

So, if they saw their rider was cold, they'd try to warm you up the best they could.

Woolly Howls may not be easily attached to a human, but when they are they most likely refuse to leave your side for long.

I'd imagine they'd be playful with their rider, too.

Maybe they'd playfully pounce around you in the snow or something.

They seem like a dragon who likes to play in snow.

As with most dragons, they'd be possessive.

While they do not use fire as a weapon, the hail they spew is still a threat.

Ice hurts when when it hits you at high speeds, plus there's the sheer cold the blast assaults onto your skin.

These dragons either feel nice or strange to cuddle with if they wrap around you.

When a Woolly Howl is attached to you, they will want affection.

They will probably enjoy being rubbed on the belly and under the chin if anything.

I'd imagine a Woolly Howl would live with their rider or preferred human for the most part.

Although if they feel their human is threatened or they don't like the area, I can see them moving you.

You may not like the idea but they aren't entirely asking you.

You can see signs of this.

If your Woolly Howl starts getting territorial towards other dragons around you, you could easily say that's normal dragon behavior.

While normally this is true, if they stick close to you it could show they are possessive.

Especially if you feel the "furred" dragon wrap their tail around you.

They don't like the idea of sharing their human with other dragons.

They hate it, actually.

The next step from this is when they show hostility towards humans around their rider.

Maybe there's moments when you're in conversation and your dragon knocks you over onto their back before rushing off.

When a dragon gets attached they tend to get either protective or possessive with their rider, that or both.

Dragons that are more wild and not as trained tend to lean more into possessive and territorial behaviors compared to fully trained dragons.

Things get out of hand when your Woolly Howl starts getting violent.

First it's challenging other dragons to get them to back down.

Then they begin aiming to kill.

Soon, they see humans as threats to their rider too.

People know to back off, or at least they should, when a Woolly Howl charges their ice breath.

There's times your Woolly Howl will sit in front of the door to your home.

Either by sleeping in front of it in the inside, blocking you in with their body.

Or they stay outside like a bodyguard, snarling and growling at whatever steps near your home.

If they want to hunt fish to give you, they may just freeze your door closed with their breath before rushing off to hunt.

Woolly Howls can get dangerous and quite the handful if not properly trained.

They would even stalk, bright purple eyes keeping an eye on not only you... but other dragons/riders.

The final stage of the Woolly Howl's obsession is taking you to a nest.

These dragons tend to live in snowy and mountainous areas.

Your Woolly Howl would start by disappearing for a few days to a week to hunt down a potential cave/nest.

Then they come back with one goal in mind.

Taking you to your new home.

You'll be relieved to see your dragon, maybe they got their behavior out of their system?

Only for them to toss you onto their saddle and take off.

To take you into such a freezing climate could kill you.

They don't mean it but they do try to prevent it.

Your Woolly Howl would wrap around you to keep you warm.

They'd also try go feed you fish and other food they find.

Better get used to snow life as this is where you're staying now.

Who knows, if you ask your dragon they may able to help build a winter base for you with a fire and everything.

Despite the strain this puts on you, the Woolly Howl is happy with themselves.

Now their human is away from other dragons and humans...

They'll take care of you like you do them.

If they see you getting too cold or low in supplies, they help find warmth and things to use.

They may even be stealing.

It'll be hard for other riders to find you.

Constant snow storms make it hard to find you...

Plus, your Woolly Howl may get to them first as it has the advantage.

It understands you may seem unhappy with this arrangement...

Yet that doesn't change their mind.

Here... there's no one else...

Just you, your dragon, and the wintry isolation.

[gabessquishytum]

Back at it with fertility god au! Have a couple of thoughts that have been percolating for a bit, particularly at the beginning of Hob’s new life in the Dreaming.

The dreamkin first of all are utterly thrilled to embrace their new stepfather as well as welcome their new sibling. Everywhere he goes for a good while he is followed by a gaggle of them following along like ducklings, clamoring for Hob’s attention, and when he is knocked up again watching his growing belly with fascination (after all this is the first time any of them are really seeing the process from this side). Dream would find it amusing if he didn’t find it so arousing, watching Hob dote on the dreamkin, already seeing them as his children along with the one he’s borne already and the one he’s currently bearing, a natural parent from the beginning. Dream falls in love all over again and simply has to fuck his pregnant consort about it.

Speaking of pregnant sex, they have it frequently and all over the place, and dirty talk about Hob being bred is like a horny trigger for the both of them, guaranteed to drive them wild. However they learn the hard way to be careful of what they say when; if, in the first trimester, even one of them starts talking about breeding Hob even more than he already has been, of putting another baby in there next to the first one, here in the Dreaming it actually will result in multiples 😅 So they learn to watch what they say, and focus on the baby Hob is currently having.

As the years go by, for the most part Hob has relatively easy births, as though he really was made for it. However, occasionally he’ll have a birth that’s a little more of a challenge, and one time he went through a birth that gave him actual real trouble. His life was not in any real danger, but it did result in him needing some definite recovery time before he can be knocked up again. The experience scared Dream more than it did Hob though, and after Hob is given a completely clean bill of health and the green light to start making babies again, Dream is actually reluctant to do so, worried about putting Hob through that again. This results in Hob pinning Dream down and slowly riding him, saying over and over how he does such a good job breeding Hob, how he gives Hob such good babies, and reminding him how much Hob loves being pregnant, how suited to it he is, surely Dream wouldn’t want to deprive him of his purpose, until Dream cums hard. They cuddle together for awhile afterwards, both of them cradling and stroking Hob’s belly.

-🪽anon

I love this so much!!! Love to see more fertility god au, its such a delightful thing to think of.

Of course, Hob is actually pregnant with and giving birth to quite a wide range of dreamkin which come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them actually look like human babies, some of them take on more mystical appearances, or they might even look like abstract concepts or places! Hob loves them all equally. He always makes sure to visit the dreams that turn into landscapes, and he spends are much time as possible with all the ones that take on the appearance of humans or animals. He's got the same devotion to all the dreamkin, even if he didn't give birth to them, and while many of them are much, much older than him, they like having a new parental figure in the dreaming. Dream always has a lot to do and he doesn't always have time to dedicate to his creations, so everyone is basically a lot more content with Hob around to settle them (it takes a lot of weight of Lucienne’s shoulders, and she can focus on what she likes best: books).

Dream always knows exactly what the latest creation for his realm is going to be, but usually Hob likes to have an element of surprise. It's fun to guess what he might be carrying this time! But he tries not to think too much about it because there have been instances when he accidentally reshaped or changed the dream with his own imaginings...

They have so much fun when Dream hosts diplomatic balls in the dreaming, or if they go to other realms for parties and events. Hob now has his status as a minor fertility god and as Dream’s consort, so all the snooty cosmic entities have to treat him with respect. He all gets devastatingly horny because the beings at these events will always draw attention to his pregnancy (much like human beings tend to!) and ask a million questions. It's slightly annoying but mostly so arousing to have everyone's attention on him and his belly.

Some of the other gods etc will try to commiserate with him like "oh it must be so awful to be pregnant all the time and not able to sleep with your husband!" Which just makes Hob giggle because Dream absolutely won't leave him alone when he's knocked up. Honestly Hob can barely keep up with all the sex Dream wants to have! The idea that Dream doesn't find him attractive when he's duck-waddling around with their latest dreambaby in his womb is just... hilarious.

They are the happiest weird little eldritch family. Dream has never been happier or prouder and he's really looking forward to fucking Hob about it later <3

[childotkw]

Hello again!

This is the anon who shared that litttle snippet of Cannibal offering Lucerys a small meaty snack. Decided to drop the anon since you've been such an inspiration and I keep thinking about this whole concept. Hope you don't mind me playing around in the sandbox a little more. Sharing fic snippets and ideas is so much fun. lol

It begins as a whisper about a boy who escaped the very jaws of death and then returned with fangs of his own upon the back of the savage Cannibal. The Heir to Driftmark was once his most honored title. Now he has many names. The Feral Fang. The Beast. The Unkillable Bastard. The Wild Prince. Loved and feared in equal breaths. It is said that experiencing death can change a person and they were so very right.

Gone were the soft eyes and playful laughter. His innocence had been ripped away from him as violently as Vhagar had ripped apart his childhood companion. Arrax had died and part of his soul died with him. He did what he needed in order to survive. He cut his teeth on his dragon's flesh, accepting one final gift from his dear friend, in order to chase away the cruel fingers of hunger. He clung fiercely to life, refusing to give in to the cold comfort of the Stranger's touch. His anger burned hot like dragonfire and his hunger for revenge had yet to be sated. He could not die. Not yet.

It was the scent of flesh and blooding floating on the sea and soaking into the sand that caught the creature's attention. Drawn in by a predator's instinct, the dragon landed expecting an easy meal. Instead it had been attacked by a small human attempting to chase it away from the remnants of a pale dragon head. The ancient dragon roared its fury and opend its jaws, flames burning brightly at the back of its throat. The human reeking of death and dragon blood firmly stood his ground and roared back, pouring every last ounce of his rage and grief into the sound. Large jaws slipped shut and a huge head slowly lowered. The predator stared intently at the small human, only to meet a predator's eyes staring fiercely right back.

It is hard to say who claimed who that day, but the bond hand been established, and the ancient dragon would allow Lucerys Velaryon climb upon its back and cling to sharp spikes with bloodied fingers as they took to the skies.

-----

Do you think the dragon handlers ever manage to get a saddle on ole' Cannibal? Can you imagine the stress of having to even attempt such a thing? I'm kind of in love with the idea that the dragon is just so feral that it refuses to allow anyone other than Lucerys to climb on its back or even touch it. Instead, Lucerys gets to pull a Daenerys and ride that beast bareback. Lucky thing the dragon is covered in huge spikes that he can cling to.

This further unnerves the members of his family and anyone who witnesses their interactions. Even Daemon, The Rogue Prince, is not crazy enough to fly Caraxes without his saddle and fastenings. Plus the dragon harnesses and equipment are seen as a civilized way of controlling the dragons and leashing their strength. The fact that Lucerys does not conform to the tradition is just more proof of his wild ways and his strong yet strange connection to his dragon.

(Aemond, watching Lucerys fly on Cannibal's back without a saddle or single security measure like the madman he always knew his nephew to be: *is even more obsessed & possibly with heart eyes*

Rhaenyra: LUCERYS VELARYON GET DOWN FROM THERE THIS INSTANT.

Daemon: Now listen here, boy. You have no harness to tie you down. If Aemond comes at you with that old beast...do a jump attack.)

Rumors also begin to spread of how strong the link is between the prince and his dragon. Some even say there are times when they seem to move and think as one, spurred on by their shared fury and hunger for bloodshed.

(Also: What do you think about the idea of Lucerys with Skinchanger type abilites? That's next level bonding with your bloodthirsty, Cannibal dragon right there. Literally giving the whole "Targaryens are blood of the dragon." thing a whole new meaning. lol)

It isn't uncommon to find the Prince curled in shadow of his colossal beast on the outskirts of the castles or the army camps, the pair quietly watching the bustling soldiers and animals. Their presence is seen as both a blessing and a curse. Cannibal holding vigil means the Green forces will be less likely to attempt a direct assault. They are technically safe, but there's just something so unnerving about the way the dragon and his bonded prince seem to watch at them all. Their predatory gaze is a terrifyingly heavy weight, but that is the cost of being guarded by one of the largest dragons in all of Westeros and his wild little prince.

Hello darling! Thanks for sharing! It's wonderful that you like the AU so much 🥰🥰🥰🥰

I love the idea of Lucerys getting a bunch of 'titles' - both from his impossible survival, and all the batshit stuff he gets involved with once he comes back.

'The Wild Prince' mirroring Daemon's own moniker is awesome. 'The Unkillable' given how often he goes into danger and comes back largely unharmed. 'Son of the Stranger' - maybe? Given how the Stranger seems to let Lucerys go time and time again, almost as if he's a favoured child? 😂 Either way, our boy be collecting titles like they're badges.

I like the idea of people thinking Lucerys is the one that claimed Cannibal, but anyone with a dragon knows it's actually the other way around. The dragon always, always claims their rider. Which means the smallfolk think Lucerys is scary because he 'tamed' Cannibal; but everyone in the know are rightfully freaked out because they know Cannibal's actually the one that picked Lucerys - and that implies things.

Following that train of thought, I was already planning to have Lucerys forego a saddle. There's no way Cannibal would allow them to put a saddle on him, not in those first few years at least. Lucerys has to get a whole new wardrobe because of this - thicker leathers to protect his skin, coarse gloves and help him grip onto Cannibal, boots with slight spikes on the soles to catch on the dragon's hard scales, etc.

Everyone is, rightfully, worried the first few times Lucerys rides Cannibal without any of the safety measures they had come to rely on, but soon it become obvious that Lucerys would not fall. Not while Cannibal flew with him.

For Aemond, Lucerys reminds him of the dragonriders of old, of Aerion come again. It's a mixture of awe and fascination and envy that overcomes him whenever they clash and he sees how brazen his nephew is, almost daring Aemond to make him fall again.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Glad the Imago stuff was of interest! Its fun to play with different Miraculous powers running wild. The Butterfly is best for it, but Trixx's illusions becoming real can be good too.

Speaking of the wily fox, an idea I had for like 1 AU that spread to many, especially those closer to the canon timeline but still distinct. Volpina, is a genuine Miraculous Holder,

Hear me out XD

So in anything with a revised Butterfly, there's room for another lost Miraculous or two if one wants.

& while I like 1 or more ending up with the Tsurugi's who claim to want to supersede Fu as Guardian & to respect the Kwami as deities, though how genuine Tomoe is can vary. They aren't the one that is becoming default, Lila is.

Long story short, Trixx was lost before the order even fell, possibly for the first time or one of many being a trickster. It was easy for them to slip the leash or find a new wielder. As a result they've been bouncing around for centuries in-between long naps; usually causing mischief and doing some good on the side.

In the modern day Trixx wakes up, so to speak, in a second hand store Lila is screwing for exotic looking items to sell her stories & masks for her collection.

She finds the greatest mask of all and Trixx finds a new wielder.

Being a concept first & person second, & a tricky one at that Trixx is not the most pearl clutching moralist, & Lila didn't get up to anything above mischief and petty crime. Thus any worries someone may have had, like say about her compulsive lying and identity issues were either not quite noticed or seen as long term problems.

Then Nooro starts being used to terrorize Paris & Trixx is loyal to family & Lila is not a horrible person, she likes Trixx, she thinks using the true names to command Kwami is vile & she sees how adored Ladybug & Chat Noir already are.

She wants that.

I like to picture them both eating fast food in a fancy hotel at the end of Origins, staring boggle eyed at the tv with food halfway to their opened mouths as the news reports on Stoneheart XD

Anyway, she eventually makes her way to Paris, has a good debut and actually joins the team for awhile. Fu is searching but finding them is not easy even with Lila's penchant to use Glamour and illusions for some petty fun on the side.

Things do trn bad though because:

Her desire to get more attention leads her to potentially staging some stuff to stop.

She prioritizes a personal matter (Saving Adrien) over the mission & they almost lose as Chat Noir is not there.

She neglects the plan in favor of trying to show off and makes things worse.

She gets careless with her identity so she can be a celebrity already.

She's 14, what can one expect XD

The result of this causes her to be found by Fu & her Miraculous taken back. He's not horrible about it, but he is stern and the reaction of Ladybug & Chat vary depending on context though at best/worst they grudgingly go along with it. If they know at all.

Cue Akumatized Volpina perhaps and her becoming one of Hawk Moth's prime targets for ongoing 'observation' like Chloe is. Where things go from there... Well who knows.

Honestly any kind of Lila being a hot mess of fun but like. In the realistic way of 'teenager with issues finds magic jewelry' is GREAT

[adobe-outdesign]

Opinion on that really big fluffy past moth pokemon? (I forgot it’s name but past Volcarona)

We heard from leaks that there was going to be two paradox Volcarona 'mons, which was exciting for me because Volcarona's one of my favorite moths in the series. While Iron Moth was underwhelming, I'm pretty pleased with Slither Wing here as a whole.

First, I just think the idea of a larvae-like form for Volcarona is neat. Some bugs do keep larvae forms as adults, including the female trilobite beetle (known as a larviform female):

While there's nothing inherently prehistoric about this except for appearance, it does work well for a past paradox. It kind of invokes Larvesta but really looks nothing like it apart from still being a caterpillar, giving Slither Wing its own identity.

(Side note: Am I the only one who thinks that "slither" is a particularly weird way to describe a caterpillar's movement? Caterpillars more crawl, slithering is more how you'd describe a snake. But I digress.)

Visually, I like how it plays off of Volcarona's design. It would've been easy to keep everything the same as Volcarona just as a caterpillar this time, but instead they had some fun changing up the elements in the design while keeping them recognizable. For example: the body fur is fluffier, the eyes are now yellow and have "eyeliner", the antennae are forked, the wings are now tipped with yellow and have green diamond accents instead of black ovals, etc.

In all honestly, I think it actually looks better than Volcarona in some respects—and like I said earlier, I like Volcarona a lot. The yellows and greens really make the wings pop and give it some brilliant color, the yellow eyes feel like a more natural color choice than the blue of the original, and the palette is, for the most part, more coherent.

The only things in this design that I think were missteps were that, first off, the ovals on the wings matched the roundness of the body more and overall felt more natural than Slither Wing's diamonds. And secondly, it's hard to see in the above images, but it has a tail:

This is possibly supposed to invoke Larvesta's brown segmented abdomen, and while I'm not sure how much it was needed, I'm not opposed to the idea; it's an interesting feature to put on a bug, and makes it look all the more wild and ancient.

The problem is the colors; making it that awful teal is a terrible choice, as it draws way too much attention to it and it muddies an already busy palette by introducing yet another color. This also makes it feel disconnected from the rest of the body. It would have been considerably better if it was black like its head and legs; it can keep the light green spikes to match the wings, or it can swap them for a yellow or red. Regardless, that's the only real misstep in an otherwise solid design.

Also, not related to the design, but bug/fighting is kind of an odd choice for this one. It can rear up on its hind legs, but I can't really see it doing martial arts moves, you know? I've heard some people say bug/dragon, and while I wasn't sure about that at first, it does fit the more I think about it—it has a reptilian tail, walks on all fours, has wings on its back, and the antennae look like horns. This isn't a huge deal, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

So, overall, this is probably one of my personal favorite paradox Pokemon. I think the concept is very neat and looks appropriately prehistoric, yet it has its own unique design that honestly looks better than Volcarona's in many ways. The only misstep is making the tail a very garish color that isn't used anywhere else in the design—everything else is pretty great.

[comicgeek2003]

Our Werewolfs are Different

This trope deals with variations of lycanthropy (i.e. werewolves).

The exact parameters of lycanthropy vary, but to meet the definition, a werewolf must be a person who takes the form of a wolf under certain conditions (the exact details do vary). Far and away the most popular concept is that a werewolf is a human who has somehow become able to temporarily transform (usually unwillingly) into a wolf that goes on to run wild (rarely remembering their romp). Usual methods includes being bitten, but a lot of depictions show lycanthropy as solely hereditary. Other popular causes include curses and typical mad scientist experiments. Like most werewolves, the classic wolf-man only transforms on the full moon, or, failing that, at night, though none of this is a given in modern works.

Examples:

An American Werewolf in London: The werewolf in this film is a definitely quadrupedal, over-sized animal, looking rather like a husky that has swallowed a large barrel, with limbs set more like a crocodile's than a wolf's; moreover, it has a howl like a train-whistle. Oh, and while Jack ambiguously dismisses the concept of a silver bullet, riddling the werewolf's body with regular gunfire seems to work just fine, as shown by the werewolf at the beginning and David at the end.

Garfield and Friends: In the episode "The Carnival Curse", Garfield receives a gypsy's curse that turns him into a wolf-cat when the moon is full. Note that he is never referred to as a werewolf but rather a "wolf-creature", which makes sense as "were" means "man".

The Howling (1981): The modern upright-beast man style made its popular debut in The Howling (1981), which featured infectious werewolves who otherwise acted as a species who could change at will and seem to retain their own minds, though with predatory instincts. A character points out that the werewolves must be killed with silver, while saying the full moon thing is just Hollywood made up stuff.

Doctor Who: The episode "Tooth and Claw" involves an alien intelligence that could possess people and turn them into a Wolf Man form, and jump (or reproduce) between bodies by biting. Called a Lupine Wavelength Haemovariform, acts like a sentient virus, and had designs on possessing Queen Victoria.

Teen Wolf: Werewolves are sub-categorized into Alphas (dominant), Betas (subordinate) and Omegas (lone). Only an Alpha can actually infect a person with lycanthropy. The werewolf trait can be, but is not always, passed from parent to child, so werewolf families exist. It is possible for an individual werewolf to change their status. For example, a Beta can become an Alpha by killing one. This is not easy however, since Alphas possess much greater power than Betas and Omegas. It is also possible for a Beta to ascend to Alphahood through strength of will and character, but this is shown to be extremely rare, as the main protagonist is the only character to achieve this so far.

Buffyverse: Werewolves occasionally pop up in both "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and sister show "Angel" in different varieties. The show's lycanthropy can be transmitted by bite regardless of transformation state, displays a heightened sense of smell, and a vulnerability to silver and deadly injuries, like a ripped throat or bullet wounds. They change three times every moon cycle: the night of the full moon and the two surrounding nights. The most well-known werewolf characters are Oz (who was bitten by his younger cousin Jordy and learned to suppress his normal transformations after a long trip to Tibet), Veruca (a minor love interest of Oz's) and Nina.

Harry Potter: The Lycanthropy is transmitted by bites, and results in uncontrolled transformations during a full moon utilising like many, many modern versions the tragedy of "The Wolf Man" from 1941. Werewolves are discriminated against by the Wizarding society despite their relative innocence. They are dangerous to humans, but not to other animals (or Animagi). No cure exists, but a Wolfsbane Potion allows them to keep control of their minds during the transformation. Good werewolf Remus Lupin takes the Wolfsbane potion to keep his, whereas the evil Fenrir Greyback doesn't care as he is bloodthirsty as a human anyway. It should also be noted that werewolves are only created when bitten by another werewolf while in wolf form. If bitten by a werewolf in human form, they may garner a few traits (a desire for bloody meat, a temper issue, etc.), but will not actually become a werewolf.

Howl (2015): The werewolves in this film have a somewhat more human-like appearance than most portrayals, with the major wolf-traits present in their anatomy being their golden eyes, pointed ears, jagged teeth, claws, noses and digitigrade legs. Otherwise, they still possess distinctly human features including being largely hairless. Lycanthropy infects and turns new people into werewolves via bites; but unlike the mainstream depictions of werewolves, this version of lycanthropy is treated as a pathogenic mutation which slowly and increasingly transforms the victims and makes them lose their human identities in a zombie-like manner. The transformation after infection appears to be one-way and permanent. It's unknown if the full moon has any influence over these werewolves or the disease that turns them (the film's events take place on the night of a full moon).

Futurama: In a direct parody of "An American Werewolf in London" (and Turbo Teen), the episode "The Honking" has a curse that can turn any mild-mannered robot into a werecar. Unlike the hovercars the characters in the show are familiar with, these cars are "crawling around on round rubber feet... like a wolf!".

Hellsing: The Captain, one of the villains, is a werewolf. He has several forms which he can go between at will, ranging from a human to a mist-like Dire Wolf. In all forms he has massive physical strength and speed with a healing factor.

[shwoo]

The river in the Outer Wilds DLC represents the flow of time.

The river in the Outer Wilds DLC represents the flow of time.

The most obvious evidence for this is that the records you find along the river are in chronological order. You find the record of the owlk discovering the Eye in the earliest, least built up part of the Stranger, and the record of their study of the Eye and how they reacted to that in the second area. The second area is more raised up, and also has their church of the Eye looking building. You find the heavily redacted record of what they did after that near the extra technological lab in the cliff.

And all through those section, the current propels you along while you're on the river, and you only need the raft controls to steer. Then you get to the reservoir, the current stops, and the upbeat river music is replaced by a quieter track with an accompaniment that sounds like a ticking clock. You can find another record that's set even later than the last one, and is even more redacted.

The river doesn't flow at this point because the owlk dammed it, and that ties into their rejection of change. I don't think I can elaborate without being more free with spoilers, so continuing below!

So according to Solanum, the Eye of the Universe represents extreme changeability, and you have to solve a bunch of puzzles to get to her to hear this, so she's probably right, at least on a thematic level. In rejecting the Eye, the owlk rejected the concept of change, something that inevitably comes with the flow of time. They wanted things to go back to how they were before they saw a really cool thing in the sky and destroyed their homeworld over it, and since that wasn't possible, they made an unchanging simulation so that they could pretend. Metaphorically damming up their time.

The programmers don't even bother fixing all the glitches they found during development. It's been hundreds of thousands of years, you could probably get around to making it less easy to fall through a loading zone.

The simulation also becomes progressively more built up the further along the river you go, like its real world equivalent, until you get to the equivalent of the reservoir and there's almost nothing there.

But they can't keep things dammed up forever, and halfway through the game's time loop, the dam breaks, literally and metaphorically. It's because the ship starts to accelerate into deep space, but it was that or be incinerated. And if it broke that easily, it probably would have failed on its own anyway.

All they did was put off change until it exploded through and killed a bunch of people without warning and destroyed their stuff. And I assume they had a mechanical reason put a dam on their spaceship in the first place, maybe for power generation or heat distribution, so it doesn't look great for the surviving group of owlk. Or the Prisoner, but the Prisoner probably isn't as into eternal life as the rest of them seem to be.

The simulation also becomes progressively more built up the further along the river you go, but I didn't want to say that above the readmore.

Also, the music for the reservoir, River's End, doesn't play after the dam breaks. What actually convinced me at first of this river = time thing was the melody that you eventually hear in that song. It's a minor key version of Travellers, which plays nowhere else in the DLC other than the ending sequence. I'm not 100% certain that this is why it's in River's End, but it is the song that plays at the end of the universe.

In conclusion, the river in the Outer Wilds DLC is a metaphor for the flow of time.

[pokeology]

My Gengar doesn't seem to like me. She's shiny, and my friend caught her in the wild but traded her to me cause ghost types freak him out. Is there something I might be doing wrong?

Gengar is a tricky species. Nearly every enthusiast will tell you the pokedex overestimates their aggression, but...

As a professor, I cannot let my biases cloud my judgement. While it is true a hand-reared gengar is much less dangerous than a wild caught one, it's very harmful both to people and to the species to play down the risks of living with this pokemon. I will emphasize again and again- I am NOT calling them 'evil' or 'bad' pokemon. There is no such thing.

This all said, it is absolutely possible to form a lasting bond with your gengar. Ghost type behavior is very similar to psychic types. They're very in tune with emotions and life force as a concept. Unlike psychic types, however, they're nearly all 'negative'- they feed on 'bad' emotions like malice, or drain life force, or their play behaviors are actively detrimental to other creatures. This does not make them evil, of course. Pokemon have no concept of right or wrong.

Gengar falls in with the second and third examples I gave. They feed on life force, and a majority of their behaviors can be difficult to live with. Because of this, it's very easy to assume they don't like you. It's the opposite, though! A gengar that messes with you is a gengar that likes you. Do be wary of curses it might put on you, but being a good sport about it can help your relationship- it is trying to play, after all.

If it's ignoring you, that's when you can turn the tables. Don't be mean- you're initiating play, so you have to make it clear you don't want to fight- but playing small pranks like hiding its toys can show it you're willing to forge a relationship.

Good luck! Don't get cursed!

[atlantis54]

im bored so heres a list of 3ds games i like that you should download if you have hshop

-Parascientific Escape Trilogy: basically a mix of puzzle, mystery and visual novel. the games involve a lot of psychic and ESP themes (hence, parascientific) so if yer interested in like telekinesis and whatever i recommend it. also theres a scene in the 1st game where one of the characters straight up tells the protag “im gonna call the police” in the most polite and kind way possible and its great

-Legend of Dark Witch Trilogy: a sidescrolling platformer thats basically just megaman but with anime girls. the game is in a retro sprite style that looks awesome and the music is a banger, however its uh. very hard. even on easy. you might have to replay the levels a lot but as long as you remember to level up your stats youll be fine. besides getting a game over doesnt wipe yer progress or anything. if yer a fan of megaman you should get it cause its like a spiritual successor (like how yooka-laylee is inspired by banjo-kazooie and pizza tower is inspired by wario land)

-Pocket Card Jockey: i don’t really like card games but i still really like this one. mainly its bc its funny as hell. like in the very beginning your character straight up dies via getting trampled by horses. anyway, the game is essentially solitaire mixed with horse racing. if you go in not knowing how to play solitaire (like i did) you may find it a little hard but its still really fun regardless. the game’s artstyle is also just really nice to look at bc it makes everyone look... idk, toyish? playmobile? i wouldnt say its chibi but its close. anyway if you like comedy and puzzle games please play this game its great

-Tomodachi Life: this game is like if nintendo made their own version of the sims. basically, you run an island populated by the miis you create and you have to solve their problems. it can get a bit repetitive but never completely stale as a lot of wild things can happen. for example, on one of my playthroughs chikorita from pokemon and dedede from kirby married and had like 3 kids. like in any other situation the concept would be cursed but here its so ridiculous that its good. also, like pocket card jockey, there’s a lot of comedy aspects. this is probably the most iconic game out of the ones im listing here, so if you like life sims and memes, this is the game for you!

-Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido: yeah, most of the games im suggesting have stupid premises that are executed surprisingly well. in a world where fish doesn’t exist, literal freaking GODS make sushi. of course, nobody has tried seafood in this universe, so an ongoing war is happening over it. your job as the protag is to make sure everyone is able to get sushi without risking their life for it. yeah, sounds dumb, but the battle system for defeating enemies is really satisfying, as you link together pieces of sushi and yeet the empty plates at yer opponent. if crack taken seriously is yer thing, you should get it!

aaaaaand thats all i can think of rn. if you have hshop on yer 3ds then you should get these games bc their really cool and fun thanks :D

[rata-novus]

okay so now that ive finished season 1 of farscape, i have some ~thoughts~

-character development is great. d'argo going from an ornery loner to being genuinely happy to see crichton & striving to save aeryn's life, aeryn coming face-to-face with crais after months of being deemed "contaminated" & exiled and realizing the home she lost ISNT worth her pining over wanting to go back. great stuff so far.

-speaking of crais he kinda frustrates me bc when he & crichton were "kidnapped" by that sorcerer early in the season, i feel like he was so close to believe crichton (aka the truth) about what happened with his brother re it being a tragic accident, but then the sorcerer guy messed with them & ruined the moment. idk if he ever comes around but it feels like a possibility? but maybe NOT after what aeryn did to him w the aurora chair...... okay i wrote that when i was still on s1e21 and now crais is kinda on our side but not really but also not a peacekeeper anymore and i just HEAVILY dislike that talyn chose him over aeryn, boooooo~

-it would have been SO easy to make critchton into a himbo, but he's so genuine & kind & smart & yeah a lil dumb when it comes to alien customs n stuff but he has a strong moral compass, which makes it hurt even all the after his torture.......

-dont have a solid favorite character, i feel like i love them all equally (including best boi pilot), except for chiana (who i dont dislike, just not familiar with her yet) just bc shes so new & rygel bc he has his moments but sometimes he really grinds my gears lol. i've been spoiled that there's a big death in s2 but idk who that is but if it's d'argo/pilot/moya i will be devastated

-i already got the mass effect vibes from the very start, but by now its also giving me the same feeling buffy did with the different scenarios each episode with callbacks to previous events and throughlines/story arcs & a good helping of goofiness (but with less cringey whedonesque dialogue; sorry i love buffy, watched it multiple times all the way thru, but you cant deny the dialogue has a very specific vibe). theres just something v comfy about watching the show, even though this is my first time

-some really cool episode concepts, my fave so far being the one where moya is stuck in starburst and there are 4 different overlaid versions of the ship (red/blue/yellow/og) with different sensory overstimulation/disasters. v v cool. plus just the idea of a LIVING, PREGNANT ship is wild

-really excited to see where the story goes re the ancient giving crichton the wormhole information & scorpius desiring that info etc

[hugheses]

Saying this in the nicest way possible, but you really sound hypocritical. You get these pictures from Pinterest because I’ve seen them on there, and you don’t credit whoever posted them on there. It’s the same concept. Videos and pictures you didn’t take you don’t need credit for especially if you’re getting it off another platform . Yes I know that if you get a video from YouTube and it’s still up you put the source on there, but ones that are no longer up and you happen to have them saved, you dont need credit for that . If it’s pictures and videos you did take, then absolutely you deserve credit for them, but you wanting credit for videos on other platforms is wild to me . If I’m not mistaken you’ve said before that you didn’t need credit because it was easy stuff to find. I’m not saying her taking credit for a few videos is okay because it most definitely is not, but you really could have handled this differently. You could have easily reached out to her on tiktok instead of posting it publicly. That is just childish. It’s between you and her no one else. Be adults and talk about it privately.

well you did not say this in a nice way for starters lmao. but 1. i never get stuff off pinterest, which you should know because i always post the source unless its been deleted. if there’s the same pictures on pinterest they probably got it from… the same source i did 😮. im offended you would say that, pinterest quality photos are horrible. i would never do such a thing. if i DID find a new to me picture on pinterest i would immediately try to find a higher quality version. it’s like you don’t even know me. 2. i’ve had an issue with this girl for months and only brought it up because someone came into my inbox about it. so i answered. i did reach out to her directly months ago and she deleted my comment lmao. i wouldn’t have said anything at all if not for the anon in my inbox.

if you think i’m a hypocrite feel free to unfollow ✌️

[thehydromancer]

Lordship at Last; A Scrub's Tale

After 268 hours (I know) and 173 levels (I KNOW), I finally cleared my first Elden Ring run. I... love it. It took me a long time to realize exactly why, but when it hit me it made perfect sense. The whole game is the Water Temple. I don't think I need to explain that to anyone. A simple statement, but the more you think about it, the implications are layered and sublime. I vaguely recall an ancient game mag interview with some dev or another who, when asked what his dream project would be, described a grittier Zelda with more subtle storytelling and more interesting uses in combat for traditional equipment such as the hookshot. I remember loving the concept, and later Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom. Elden Ring though feels like the logical conclusion to exploring the freedom and flexibility of modern fantasy adventure games, the masterpiece bookend to the world of possibilities that the OG NES Zelda began to reveal to us.

And what a journey its been. My first Souls-like game, starting out as a bandit named Torrent (IMAGINE MY SURPRISE WHEN THE GAME {I THOUGHT} ADDRESSED MY CHARACTER BY NAME IN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES!!!), not understanding how shields worked, and grossly under leveling vigor (hell finished with only 40 before hearing after the fact that 60 is typically the goal). Dying to the lake side ruins bats again. And again. And again. Standing in the Church of Elleh thinking I was safe, studying the Limgrave Tree Sentinel with my shiny new telescope, only for it to drop the walls on me. Not understanding how elemental damages work till the last 3rd of the game. Breezing through some bosses only to be kneecapped physically and spiritually again and again by a pair of mangy mutts, cocaine bear, biblically accurate angel bubbles, or simply a zombie holding a torch causally away from their body. Spending the first half of the game dying in numbers that would make Rosus himself say 'hey slow down there partner, thanks for putting my kids through Raya Lucaria with all those runes you lost, but I really need a break.' Forgetting I'd picked up the crystal tear for cleansing during the Mohg fight, instead trying everything up to and including Law of Regression to clear the triple ring status effect during the fight.

Ever so slowly, painfully, learning the ins and outs of the game. Slowly morphing from a dex curved sword user with throwing knives and a bow to a mage knight desperately cheesing his way through the last 60 hours of the game. SO. MUCH. BACKTRACKING. I must have revisited Stormveil over the course of 100 hours, finding something new every time. Exploring every nook and cranny in the world, scrapping runes together as hard as I could in the early game, only to be shocked at how easy leveling became in the second half of the game. Hosting tryouts for every Spirit Ashes like I was assembling the outer-gods-damned Avengers to fight Thanos wielding the Elden Gauntlet. ACCIDENTALLY STUMBLING UPON DRAGON ELDEN LORD, WHOOPS SORRY SIR(S?) DIDN'T MEAN TO DISTURB YOUR ETERNAL TIMELESS SLUMBER! In the end, somehow, managing to defeat all demigods and I'd guess 95% of the bosses in the game. I know I missed a few, and there was 3 or 4 I purposefully decided to ignore for my own sanity (if Blaidd had been half red wolf he'd of been the next Elden Lord I swear).

Bosses that gave me the greatest trouble at the time;

Margit (pretty sure we killed each other at the same time, so I never got his runes)

Godrick (I'd like to think it'd be a different story now that I've developed some skill and muscle memory but boy was this a grind)

Dragon Tree Sentinel guarding Lyndell (probably over 50 deaths, just the worst, only read about the additional summons later!)

The Elden Beast (how do pure melee builds beat this guy!? I had trouble keeping up with it using various ranged spells, the opportunities to stab it felt few and far inbetween)

Bosses that I was shocked at how easy they were based on memes/carbot/the community;

Radahn (only demigod I beat my first time, still an awesome battle)

Placidusax (one of the most enjoyable fights in hindsight, really felt like I was hitting my stride with the ebb and flow of battle finally)

Malenia, Blade of Miquella (in fairness was probably grossly over leveled by this point, downed in 3 or 4 attempts)

Radagon (the cheese was real but I was also serving it)

Special shout out to the meteorite staff and rock sling spell, the true MVPs of my run and the breakers of bosses, especially dragons. The carian knight sword and grandeur skill had an incredible run until I was able to nab the Sword of Night and Flame, and eventually the Dark Moon Greatsword itself, fulfilling my transformation into Fierce Deity Tarnished. Loretta's War Sickle was surprisingly fun as well for non boss fights.

As I look ahead to the DLC and meander/experiment through a NG+ or 3 while I wait, I can't help but wonder, probably a true dark horse theory... are we, the Tarnished, in some way, shape, or form... Miquella? Why would Malenia, instead of seeking him out to rescue her beloved brother, wait for him in the one place she knows he isn't... convinced he'd return... when it was I, Tarnished, all along who returned? Silly I know. But Torrent (I hate that I have to specify this, the horse) also reacted to Torrent (the Tarnished) in a way that felt more meaningful the second time around after having experienced most of the story. Why would Melina choose us (assuming we were her only attempt) over all others? Did she even truly know?

Alright that was a lot. I wish I'd kept a running journal of my play through, there was just so much wonder and discovery. I look forward to picking up Bloodborne and Lies of P to continue feeding my new addiction!